Border crossing goes awry when man gets stuck in tunnel exit

SAN DIEGO – Fourteen people trying to enter the United States through a storm drain tunnel in Otay Mesa ran into a glitch Tuesday morning, when the third person exiting the narrow opening became stuck.

Border Patrol agents using a stationary surveillance camera near the tunnel's exit in an industrial lot on Via De La Amistad spotted the first two people as they emerged from the tunnel shortly after 7 a.m.

They then discovered a man stuck in the tunnel, his hips wedged tightly in the concrete opening.

San Diego Fire Department crews, responding to a request that came in at 7:14 a.m., covered the man in blankets and chipped away at the opening. “The challenge was that the tunnel itself was partly concrete,” said Maurice Luque, a fire department spokesman.

Around 8:48 a.m., crews pulled the man out of the hole and then helped two other men and two women out of the tunnel. All were covered with gray dust.

They were checked by medical personnel. One of the women was taken to a hospital for evaluation, while the rest were taken to a detention center.

Officials said the other seven people in the tunnel went back to Mexico. Officials on that side of the border checked and found that all of them had made it out.

Border Patrol officials suspect the seven who emerged from the tunnel are undocumented immigrants, said Lauren Mack, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman. The group will be processed for deportation, she said.

Officials say the group broke into the storm drain system on the Mexican side of the border and traveled through the pipe into the United States.

The incident began when Border Patrol agents spotted a group of about 14 people gathering on the south side of the border fence, in Mexico, around 6:50 a.m. The group appeared as though they were getting ready to cross.

Shortly thereafter, agents spotted two people coming up out of the ground north of the secondary border fence, said Border Patrol spokesman Robert Harvey. Those two were apprehended, he said.

“At that point, we realized there were people still stuck in the tunnel,” Harvey said.

The group traveled some 40 yards from the U.S. border through the narrow opening, which was only about two to three feet high and wide. Most of the tunnel's length is on the U.S. side.

It is not known how long they were in the tunnel. They came out in a lot on the property of Air Liquide company.

In recent months, several undocumented immigrants have been found using the sewer system to illegally enter the U.S.

The illegal crossers “are digging small gopher-type holes on the Mexican side of the border and they are climbing into the holes and tapping into the storm drain system,” Mack said. “Then they are using the system to find a manhole to get out on the U.S. side.”

The San Diego Tunnel Task Force has been working with Mexican authorities to investigate the crossings since they learned of them about three months ago, she said. The task force is made up of agents from the Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Border Patrol spokesman James Jacques said the Border Patrol has discovered 23 tunnels in the last 10 years in the San Diego sector, with 12 of those found in the last 12 months, not counting the one found Tuesday.

The rescue caused a significant delay for cargo trucks that were trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico.

Border Patrol agents asked that northbound cargo trucks be stopped at 7:45 a.m. due to safety concerns, said Vince Bond, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman.

Authorities feared that the trucks would travel on the road over the tunnel while the group was still trapped inside, Bond said.

The trucks were rerouted and allowed through at 8:15 a.m.

“This is a very busy time for us. We have 2,500 trucks or more a day enter. Sometimes there are as many as 2,900 trucks a day during a peak time like this,” Bond said.

HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune
San Diego Fire and Rescue Department personnel work to free five people that got stuck trying to enter the United States through a small man-made tunnel in Otay Mesa.

HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune
San Diego Fire and Rescue Department personnel work to free five people that got stuck trying to enter the United States through a small man-made tunnel in Otay Mesa.